Love & Peace

Rabu & Pisu
dir. Sion Sono
Japan 2015, 117’
subtitles: Polish and English

Press Play to start

Online Availability
31 Dec, 16:00 – 3 Jan
Additional Materials
Awards and festivals
Fantasia IFF 2015 – Audience Award for Best Asian Feature
Credits
Japan 2015
Duration: 117’
director: Sion Sono
screenplay: Sion Sono
cinematography: Shinya Kimura
editing: Junichi Ito
music: Yasuhiko Fukuda, Revolution Q, RC Succession
cast: Hiroki Hasegawa, Kumiko Aso, Kiyohiko Shibukawa, Eita Okuno, Sports Makita, Motoki Fukami, Toru Tezuka, Miyuki Matsuda
producer: Moriyama Atsushi, Teshima Masao, Kamagata Eiichi, Yanagimura Tsutomu
production: Gansis Production
language: Japanese
colouration: colour

Film description

Ryochi wanted to be a rock star. It didn't work out. Now he spends his days in a boring office, with colleagues who keep making fun of him. In a moment of despair, he buys a miniature turtle and calls him Picadon – atomic bomb in Japanese. He has no idea how explosive the consequences will be...

Sion Sono's insane imagery seems to have no boundaries. This time, the director combines kaiju eiga – a Japanese genre with monsters attacking cities – with a pastiche of TV music quiz shows and Hollywood family and Christmas movies. He throws in a generous pinch of slapstick, an office romance, and some spectacular explosions, as well as live toys and talking animals (for years Siono has been declaring that his favorite film is "Babe," though this time he was also inspired by "The Christmas Toy" from John Henson's Studio). All of this is served in a form of a musical – songs performed by Revolution Q, Sono's own band, combine Japanese rock and catchy tunes (the main theme stays in the head long after seeing the film), and at one point the protagonist appears on stage in a costume worthy of David Bowie.

The extravagant play with form has also – like it always does for this director – a deeper meaning. The Japanese monster films always had metaphorical, political subtexts. Here, too, the adventures of a tiny turtle become a pretext for a satirical comment on the megalomaniac inclinations of the authorities, preparations for the 2020 Olympics, and the insane consumptionism of the Japanese society. And there is more – in Sono's dark, surreal, brilliantly absurd vision everyone can find something for themselves.

text:
Jagoda Murczyńska

Sion Sono

Born in 1961. Poet, performer, filmmaker, painter, musician. One of the most influential among independent Japanese filmmakers, regularly invited to international festivals, renown for his radical artistic vision, the ability to combine shocking form with apt social critique, and his non-compromising film language. The "Sion Sono: Portrait" retrospective was held at the 10th Five Flavours FF. 

Selected filmography:

1985 Jestem Sion Sono! / Ore wa Sono Sion da!! / I Am Sion Sono!

2001 Jisatsu sakuru / Suicide Club

2008 Miłość obnażona / Ai no mukidashi / Love Exposure

2010 Cold Fish / Tsumetai nettaigyo / Cold Fish

2011 Miłosne piekło / Koi no tsumi / Guilty of Romance

2013 Zabawmy się w piekle / Jigoku de naze warui / Why Don't You Play in Hell

2015 Love & Peace

2015 Gwiazda szeptów / Hiso hiso boshi / The Whispering Star

2016 Antyporno / Anchi poruno / Antiporno 

2017 Tokyo Vampire Hotel

2019 Ai-naki mori de sakebe / The Forest of Love

Be up to date!

© Fundacja Sztuki Arteria
Our website uses cookies, i.e. small text files that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you browse the site. Click here to change your cookie settings.